Seeing Your Rods At Night

[Wantingaboat]

Hi all,

Was out last night on a mates boat during the middle of the night and i constantly felt useless as i couldnt see me rod. I am about to install lighting into my tinny and was wondering about an idea. Firstly how do other raiders overcome this issue with night fishing? I know some use those glow sticks attached to their rod tips but they are pretty expensive and will add up over the years. My mate had a head light which seemed to work well, for him, so my question is could mounted lighting be installed that shone on the rods therefore allowing you to visibly see any activity occuring on the rods. We do listen for any signs but sight would be useful too. Another thing was that when we launched at Apple Tree Bay it was pitch black and driving through the Cowan system to the Hawkesbury my mate produced a spotlight but to be perfectly honest i kept a close eye on the GPS to navigate. I wont have a GPS on my tinny so think would need a better spot light than the one he had(I still couldnt see the rocks on either side). Anyone got one that they are happy with and if so please devulge the info? It doesnt need to be powerful enough to spot B52's but safe night boating is important to me. Thanks for any advice Raiders.

Cheers. Mike.

And no i dont need a trip to OPSM. 20/20 still going strong.

Edited April 5, 2009 by Wantingaboat

[cat-as-trophy]

Flightmanager and #1Son have a row of lights that attach to their peaked raiders hats for when they are fishing at night. It means no lights in the eyes, or torches to be worried about and it leaves your hands free to be able to battle the beast or rerig your lines.

I am pretty sure that Pete at GoFish would have them, drop him a line and ask, I know that they were not expensive.

Cheers

Mrs Flightmanager

[Yarraone]

i use the night lights and have found some cheap ones in bulk on ebay as well as at paddy's markets..

Also on the spotlights, I have a 1000000 candle spot light and while it is not to bad if the bank is close..Having a brighter light would not make much difference , as the light no matter what strenght will reflect off the water and into the air .... It does make it very hard if you dont know the water way..

I found at low speed the spotlight or a fixed sealed beam does the job ok...when you are near the shoreline..I fish the Hawksberry system a bit, and alot of it has been at night.. If you take the time and make your way up and down the river nice and steady you should be ok...Just watch out for the other boats that get around with NO LIGHTS

If you are staying close to Apple tree bay you should be ok ..If you are going up around Cottage point or futher, I would look at putting in at the ramp at Parsley Bay..There is more room to move and a few more markers.. If the moon is out it helps as well..

Good luck with your next trip

[copafisher]

Mike,

See http://fishraider.com.au/Invision/index.ph...st&p=262989 for previous post. Battery power and lighting needs are main questions, LEDs draw much less power now too. There are cheaper portable spotlight kits like Lightforce available now too. You can use a lower wattage bulb to increase the useable time and reduce spotlight intensity too, there are also dispersion filter to make light softer etc (have not seen them before I might have to get one, though I can turn mine down and reduce light). Carry backups etc as you never know when battery wont work/batteries flat or torch will fail.

Cheers, Steve

[jewgaffer]

Hi Wantingaboat.......If you are considering buying a quality long lasting spot light such as the "Blue Light" U.S made spotlights which I use myself, it's better to hot wire directly into the battery and install a fuse and a switch near the dash, rather than using the 12 volt accessories/cigarette lighter fittings.... as using the spot light works the best of the male fittings loose and shorts out the light, as does the movement of the cord alone on cheaper models.......

As to your rod tip lights, the hardest part is getting hold of good quality light holders separately to fit your varying rod tipe sizes and also to go on the leader for squidding and lighting up a bait at night, particularly to light up a big fat struggling tailor who bit into your thumb ....

the chem lights themselves ,useless with out the chem light holders, are a few bucks a hundred these days, But as far as I know, but maybe someone else will help out here,.....in order to get the holders I refer to, you have to buy the complete unit and make sure the holder supplied is designed well enough to stay on a beach rod as a test...... and cut off and throw away a dozen or more pairs of useless bite detector bells..... Put this all together and it goes from the sublime to the rediculous just to be able to find and use strong, quality chem light holders with a sound and reliable rod tip gripping capability.....

Cheers

jewgaffer

Edited April 5, 2009 by jewgaffer

[Wantingaboat]

Thanks Jewgaffer and others. The reason that i was heading towards the cigerette lighter connection is that i will use it vary rarely, only at night when a spotlight is neccesary and therefore i would rather a spot light not be sitting idle in the boat all the time. It there a way of hooking it straight to the battery however making it easy to disconnect once i am done using it. I have a 4 switch panel(with fuses) goiung to a 10 point buss board.The 4 swith panel has a spare =/- so would be happy for that to be the spot light. Jewgaffer sorry for my ignorance but the other stuff you described about the lights(used for lighting up your rods) that cost $100 and that you cut the bell alarms off went completely over my head. If anyone has pictures of theeir boat at night i would love to see them. Thanks again to any one that takes the time to give me some advice.

Cheers. Mike.

[arpie]

Have a chat with Tidenknots/Pete - he has a very simple method of seeing his rods in the dark, utilising the 'all round' light that is compulsory for night fishing & a bit of white paint! Simeple but effective!

Cheerio

Roberta

[jewgaffer]

Thanks Jewgaffer and others. The reason that i was heading towards the cigerette lighter connection is that i The 4 swith panel has a spare =/- so would be happy for that to be the spot light........

..........Jewgaffer sorry for my ignorance but the other stuff you described about the lights(used for lighting up your rods) that cost $100 and that you cut the bell alarms off went completely over my head. If anyone has pictures of theeir boat at night i would love to see them. Thanks again to any one that takes the time to give me some advice.

Cheers. Mike.

Here you go Wantingaboat ............... The pics I found show you the rod tip lights to which I refer...... I use chem lights on my rod tips to monitor the bait situation at night when having small bites on big baits just as much as I monitor the heavier bite situation before I touch a rod... The problem is I have run out of holders for the chem lights of which I have plenty....... Another pic shows the line lights I described in my reply.... A drawing was all I could find to show you but I cant find any sign of line light holders for sale nowadays....

It seems that most of the chem lights known as rod tip glo lights are hi tech, good quality and long lasting and cost peanuts..... But the big problem is finding good plastics holders to secure the chem light holder to the rod tip when casting and fighting a fish and the trouble of finding the various sizes needed to suit your rod tips hardly matters because of the quality of the imports we seem to be stuck with......... It seems you have to buy the whole set with bells on which rust out after one or two uses and annoy you when its windy and all this just to get one cheap and nasty light stick holder that either flies off the rod tip during a long cast or works loose and loses its grip on the rod tip...... These days we have to put up with whatever quality they throw at us particularly when rod tip bite detection lights are such an important part of night fishing as are line lights for lighting up your baits etc and for attracting squid and inquisitive fish and are handy to have when fishing in dirty water etc

These are my own rigs. I use a chem light either on the leader or to light the inside of the squid up and have a fishtail or a fillet on the hook that hangs out of the squids mouth... I have caught quite a few fish this way on my non casting Alvey with the bait suspended just off the bottom, including flathead at night ...... the trouble is the chem light holders that my line goes thru are no longer available anywhere it seems...

EDIT For your float fishing :- For lighting up floats at night, there is a particular brand of float available at Go Fish that you wedge the line into the float between the float and the stem, (as a sliding float for adjusting the bait depth) and you can push on a chem light by reversing the float stem and using the supplied short plastic tube as an extension of the stem..... this works very well and the chem light does not come out of the plastic tube..... Go fish Pete supplied me with several of these floats among other items by courier..

Cheers

jewgaffer

Edited April 6, 2009 by jewgaffer

[Wantingaboat]

Thanks Jewgaffer. I guess those things are the way to go. I will also contact our sponser about one of those hat attached lights. Maybe even go better and get a camping head torch. Makes you look like a knob but will definately make night fishing easier. Mike.

[greg123]

Hi, i used to make that trip up and down cowan quite frequently...all you need to do is familiarise yourself with the waterway during the day, remember where all the markers are in relation to it (it will come naturally) and at night you should be fine. Usually the moon gives pleanty of light to see the landforms but on occasions it can be very hard due to cloud, rain or low light from the moon. Once you know your way around all you need is 9v dolphin (well thats what i use) to check when you feel too close to the banks.

I've only used a spotlight once and i found that it destroyed my night-vision and you have to wait for your eyes to re-adjust to the darkness until you can see well again. Also in heavy fog, spot-lights (in my experience) are useless..thats when it gets hard as its often impossible to even see the markers. I once waited at ATB for 2 hours till i could see only 20m in front of me.

Hope that helps.

[tide'n'knots]

mate this is the setup roberta is refering to.

The all round white light sits on the centre of the canopy

the light doesnt shine in your eyes as it is on the top of the canopy, it can be seen from every direction by other boats, and the rods sit in the rodholders at the rear of the boat. I paint the tips white and they light up like neon lights! this method is very simple and extremely effective. Eveyone who comes out fishing at night with me comments on how affective my system is!

Hope this helps.

Pete.

[jewgaffer]

Pete I'm not fully conversed with the ramnifications of the 360 degree all round requirements, but does the distance from or the position of your light near to and above your bimini still comply if a boat like a low sided river punt is coming towards you for instance, and is lower in the water than your boat?

Just wondering because, although my allround light, being on top of the side console window frame, has good clearance from the side lights and is mounted much lower than my high bimini above, I'm concerned that it does not comply in that, a big cruiser or a boat such as a flybridge would be too high to spot my all round light clearly when looking down onto my bimini....

I would appreciate your opinion on this Peter, and also other members opinions on the 360 degree unobstructed view rules and authorities, in regard to any 360 degree "unobstructed view" variations, might not be all that considerate if the offending bimini was up at night even during heavy rain one wouldnt think.

Cheers

jewgaffer

Edited April 6, 2009 by jewgaffer

[tide'n'knots]

Pete I'm not fully conversed with the ramnifications of the 360 degree all round requirements, but does the distance from or the position of your light near to and above your bimini still comply if a boat like a low sided river punt is coming towards you for instance, and is lower in the water than your boat?

Just wondering because, although my allround light, being on top of the side console window frame, has good clearance from the side lights and is mounted much lower than my high bimini above, I'm concerned that it does not comply in that, a big cruiser or a boat such as a flybridge would be too high to spot my all round light clearly when looking down onto my bimini....

I would appreciate your opinion on this Peter, and also other members opinions on the 360 degree unobstructed view rules and authorities, in regard to any 360 degree "unobstructed view" variations, might not be all that considerate if the offending bimini was up at night even during heavy rain one wouldnt think.

Cheers

jewgaffer

Hi byron, I am sure someone will correct me if I am wrong but the way I understand the new regulations is -

the white light must be higher than the highest part of your boat so no matter what direction another vessel approaches from they can clearly see you at anchor.

I actually got checked by the waterways on sydney harbour the night before the kingie social and the officer was very impressed with the way the light was set up, so I dont foresee any problems with the way I have it set up.

Pete.

[GregL]

For lights inside the boat for fishing, I have a red light under my T top, makes it a lot easier for your eyes to adjust to darkness again when looking around. NOt sure what brand it is as it was a standard part of the boat. It's just bright enough to see the rods in the holders no problem.

Greg

[jewgaffer]

Hi byron, I am sure someone will correct me if I am wrong but the way I understand the new regulations is -

the white light must be higher than the highest part of your boat so no matter what direction another vessel approaches from they can clearly see you at anchor.

I actually got checked by the waterways on sydney harbour the night before the kingie social and the officer was very impressed with the way the light was set up, so I dont foresee any problems with the way I have it set up.

Pete.

Pete other members might be able to advise on this because, to my mind a 360 degree all round light means having 360 degrees of light unobstructed when placed 1 metre above the port and starboard lights with no obstructions to a full 360 degrees between it and the navigation lights.....

My all round light is on the top of my side console around 1500mm above the navigation lights and about the same below my high bimini....... because of the unobstructed view requirement, I dont think my boat would comply when the bimini is opened out and sits 1 1/2 mtrs over the top of my allround light as the wattage power at the top of the light might be classed as being obstructed by the bimini above it... meaning from an overhead view from a flighbridge cruiser etc

?

Cheers

jewgaffer

Edited April 7, 2009 by jewgaffer

[tide'n'knots]

Pete other members might be able to advise on this because, to my mind a 360 degree all round light means having 360 degrees of light unobstructed when placed 1 metre above the port and starboard lights with no obstructions to a full 360 degrees between it and the navigation lights.....

My all round light is on the top of my side console around 1500mm above the navigation lights and about the same below my high bimini....... because of the unobstructed view requirement, I dont think my boat would comply when the bimini is opened out and sits 1 1/2 mtrs over the top of my allround light as the wattage power at the top of the light might be classed as being obstructed by the bimini above it... meaning from an overhead view from a flighbridge cruiser etc

?

Cheers

jewgaffer

from what i understand , your saying that the bimini acually folds out over the top of the white light and although it can be seen from all directions it is acually underneath the bimini, is that correct?

If so my understanding is that your set up is probably not legal given that it dosent sit above the highest point on your boat - the top of the bimini being your highest point.

If you move it to the top of the bimini like i have - problem solved.

the light I use actually folds down against the canopy frame so it doesnt get damaged when the canopy is folded.

when the canopy is down you could use the one you are currently using and the one on top when the canopy is up - just a thought!

good luck

pete.